Madkat's Revenge
by Miranda Shadowind
Summary: Bladea, Jake, Felina, and Chance doubledate at the new karnival in town, but something is wrong... very wrong... The SWAT Kats also gain a new member.


Madkat's Revenge  
Miranda Shadowind  
  
It was a dark and stormy night at MegaKat Asylum. A guard walked into the room next to Lenny Ringtail's cell, carrying a package addressed to him. "Hey Ringtail, some nut sent you a present!" Silence. The guard peered into the cell, where Lenny was slumped against a padded wall, sleeping.  
  
Knowing how unpredictable this nutcase was, the guard sat down at his desk and opened the package. Inside was a small orange and yellow checkered kat-in-the-box. The guard chuckled and turned the crank. Big mistake. Out came the clown head, but from its mouth snaked a strange orange gas. The gas literally choked the guard, who passed out, then seeped through the bars into Lenny's cell. Not long after, familar maniacal laughter rang throughout the Asylum.  
  
The following Saturday morning at the garage, Jake and Bladea were reading through the newspaper while Chance watched Scaredy Kat. Bladea cringed at his annoying laughter. (Author's note: if this were an actual episode, the maniacal laughter would've melded right into Chance's laughter) "Keep it down over there! Yeesh...Heeey...there's a new karnival in town!"  
  
"Sounds good to me!" Chance replied between laughs, briefly facing the others.  
  
"Hold it you two! Take a look at this!" said Jake, holding up his section of the paper. The headline read: Katizens Mysteriously Disappearing Near New Karnival "There might be connection you know.."  
  
"You worry too much, Jake. C'mon, I'll call up Felina and we'll make it a double date!"  
  
"Oh, all right...But I just can't shake this feeling that it's all a trap.."  
  
"Relax, Jakey, it'll be fun!" said Bladea, giving him a peck on the cheek. Jake grinned up at her and got up out of his chair.  
  
An hour or so later, Chance's old red car pulled into the Karnival parking lot. He drove while Felina rode shotgun in a normal outfit for once, while Jake and Bladea rode in back. The latter three were a bit disgruntled though, seeing as Chance had used a few of his infamous sloppy shortkuts along the way. Just in case, Chance and Jake had hidden their G-Suits in backpacks.  
  
Felina broke the silence as Chance pulled into an open space. "I guess this is the place..." She looked up at the main gate sign, which read "MK Karnival".  
  
"I wonder why it just says 'MK', and not MegaKat.." pondered Jake. The others just shrugged it off as all four got out of the car and headed inside. Everything seemed normal, normal for MegaKat City anyway. Food and drink venders, midway games, rides, this place had it all.  
  
Wandering through the midway, they stopped at the dunking booth, where a young tomkat sat nervously on the platform, warily looking down at the water below. Jake paid the oddly-dressed kat in charge, then threw a baseball at the target with pinpoint accuracy. *ker-SPLASH!*  
  
As the stuffed animal prize was passed from the KiC to Jake to Bladea, no one noticed the KiC press a small orange button below the counter. Or that the dunked tomkat didn't come up for air...  
  
But as the day wore on, things started getting suspicious. Kats that got on rides were never seen again, and the rides themselves were eerie. And all around them were klowns riding on balloons, disappearing from one spot and reappearing elsewhere. Suspicious indeed.  
  
The real kicker was the ferris wheel. As soon as Bladea, Jake, Felina, and Chance had almost reached the top, all the cars suddenly jerked forward, as if on automatic! "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" everyone yelled, paws tightly gripping the edges of the cars for their 9 lives.  
  
"What on Megaluna is going on here?!" yelled Bladea, trying not to look down.  
  
"I dunno, 'Dea..." Jake replied. He looked down and spotted a familar laughing nutbar wearing an orange and yellow checkered clown suit at the controls. "Madkat!"  
  
Chance looked too. "Impossible! We nailed that fruit loop two years ago!"  
  
"He's got to be the one behind all this!" commented Felina.  
  
"How very right you are, my dear! Too bad you won't be around to tell anyone!" Madkat threw another switch, and any kats that hadn't already fallen from their cars did so now.  
  
The four friends could now see how the katizens were disappearing. Several portals opened up beneath them. They managed to roll away in time, but Bladea ended up separated from the others.  
  
Knowing that Bladea could take care of herself, Jake and Chance ran into a secluded area and changed into their G-Suits. When they returned, Felina was firing at Madkat, who had morphed into the ferris wheel.  
  
"Aim for the cap!" Razor directed, firing a missile at Madkat.  
  
The psycho jester merely teleported away and turned into a giant octopus. "Nyahahahahhahhaha!" He grabbed the two surprised SWAT Kats with a tentacle each, pinning their arms to their sides.  
  
"Let them go!" cried Felina, firing some more.  
  
"Never! If you want to see their demise, come to the Castle of Mirrors!" Madkat laughed, then teleported away, SWAT Kats and all. Felina cursed under her breath and headed off.  
  
Bladea lay on her stomach in the shadows nearby. "Castle of mirrors...got it.." She stood up and made sure no one else was looking. "I gotta save the guys, but I'll need my own alias..."  
  
Bladea closed her eyes one at a time and concentrated hard. "Ancient spirits of the past...I call upon you once more to help me hide my face from mortal eyes. Give me the guise of a SWAT Kat, so that I might fight alongside my friends!"  
  
In answer to her call, Bladea was surrounded by swirling spirits that formed a blue and red G-Suit similar to Razor's. A glovatrix was on her right paw. "All right! Time to kick some serious tail!"  
  
The codename was spoken in her mind. "I..am..Demona!" This done, Demona headed toward the Castle of Mirrors.  
  
Not surprisingly, Demona found the double doors unlocked and slipped inside. They slammed shut behind her, making her jump and hit her head on the mirrored ceiling. "Ow..."  
  
She got up and examined her surroundings, which were covered in wall-to-wall mirrors. She heard clanking noises up ahead and blinked, seeing hundreds of knights wearing an orange and yellow surcoat marching toward her! Or was it?  
  
Demona looked again, and saw it was only three knights, their multiple reflections making them look like an army. "Phew..." She drew her sword and engaged in combat with the trio. "Now THIS is something I can relate to!"  
  
The first two were dispatched easily, but the third raised its shield before Demona's sword could lop its helmet off. The struggle was getting nowhere fast until a few rounds of laser hit the knight from behind, destroying it.  
  
Demona, who had rolled out of the way, looked up past the scrap metal and broken glass. About five feet away was Felina, Enforcer pistol raised. Demona grinned and got up, relieved. "Thanks.."  
  
Felina blinked, looking Demona over. "A new SWAT Kat? I thought there were only T-Bone and Razor?"  
  
"Yeah, until now. I'm Demona." Demona sheathed her sword behind her back.  
  
"Lieutenant Felina Feral, nice to meet you," They shook paws and headed down a different corridor. "Saaaay, do I know you from somewhere?"  
  
Demona shrugged. "Could be.."  
  
Meanwhile in the deepest part of the castle, Madkat had T-Bone and Razor tied back-to-back and hanging from a rope that dangled from the ceiling. Directly below them was a swirling vortex. Madkat hadn't said where it would lead, but neither SWAT Kat wanted to find out..  
  
On the floor was a lifesize orange and yellow chess board. The pieces consisted of the captured katizens dressed to their part but frozen in place.  
  
"What are we waiting for?!" T-Bone demanded of Madkat, who hovered near the orange pieces.  
  
"Your little friend, of course!" said Madkat. "That is, if she can find you!"   
  
Meanwhile, Demona and Felina had come to a dead end. They had reached the final corridor, but all that was there were four long vertical mirrors. Felina examined them while Demona tapped on one. A hollow sound emitted, and she perked a brow.  
  
Felina heard it too and pulled out her gun. "Something tells me these mirrors weren't here earlier today..." Demona nodded in agreement and cocked her glovatrix.  
  
Back in the chess chamber, Madkat was growing more impatient by the second. He was about to abort the game and just get rid of T-Bone and Razor personally when two loud glass explosions were heard at the far end of the room. The center two mirrors out of four were shattered, and out of the resulting holes stepped Demona and Felina.  
  
"Well well well...Looks like you came to play after all! And ooo, you brought a friend!" Madkat taunted sarcastically.  
  
"Let them go Klown Boy!" Demona yelled, right paw reaching behind her back for her sword.  
  
"Oh I will, I will...but ONLY if you win my little game!" Madkat gestured to the lifesize chess set on the central floor.  
  
"And what if we don't WANT to play or we lose?!" demanded Felina.  
  
"Then you join your friends up there and become permanent parts of one of my other sets!" Madkat pointed briefly to T-Bone and Razor, then to several other chess sets in the room that were similar to the one before them.  
  
"All right, you're on!" Demona cracked her knuckles and stepped over to the yellow side of the chess board.  
  
"Good! Let the games begin! Ladies first!"  
  
Demona smirked and moved a kitten/pawn two spaces forward with telekinesis. She figured the match would be easy, considering she'd had a lot of practice at chess back in the Dark Ages. Madkat however, had other ideas.  
  
Several moves later, he knocked out one of her pawns, which vanished. Overhead, T-Bone and Razor's rope lowered a little more toward the portal.  
  
"Hey! What gives?!" yelled Felina.  
  
Madkat laughed. "Oh, I forgot to mention... If you lose a piece, your friends become one step closer to joining my collection! If I lose a piece, the rope goes back up a little.  
  
Demona narrowed her eyes and growled. "Greeeeaaaat..."  
  
The game resumed and increased in its intensity. Pieces were lost by both sides, much to the dizzying dismay of T-Bone and Razor.  
  
"Cut it out down there! You're making us sick!" yelled Razor, turning green.  
  
Sometime later, there were only a few pieces left on either side, and the two SWAT Kats dangling from the ceiling were barely a foot above the portal.  
  
It was Demona's turn, and she stressfully plotted out her next move, all too aware that even the loss of one more piece would spell doom for the others.  
  
"I hate my eternity...Wait a second..." She noticed that Madkat had unknowingly made a crucial mistake that left his king quite vulnerable. Paw shaking, she slid her queen into position. "Check...and mate! You lose!"  
  
Madkat gaped in shock. "Impossible!! I NEVER lose!" He looked at the chess board again. "I don't believe it! AGH!" He yelled the latter as two of the balls on his cap were destroyed by missiles. "Whaat...?!"  
  
T-Bone and Razor were now free and on the floor beside Demona and Felina, glovatrixes raised.  
  
"Game over, Madkat!" said Felina, and blasted off the final cap ball.  
  
"NOOOOOOO!!!" Madkat crashed onto the chess board, followed by an explosion of orange smoke. When it cleared, all the katizens were back to normal, and Lenny Ringtail was sprawled out face-first among them.  
  
Razor looked at Demona, confused. "You look...familar...Who are you?"  
  
"Later, let's get the locals outta here first," Demona replied and launched a fireball at a wall. It exploded, creating a large hole. T-Bone picked up Lenny and threw him over his back like a sack of flour. The confused karnival-goers rushed out, followed by the four heroes.   
  
Once Lenny had been pawed over to the Enforcers and the chaos had subsided, Razor repeated his question to Demona. "Who are you?"  
  
"The name's Demona, but you were correct at knowing me otherwise..." Demona replied. She pulled off her helmet and mask, revealing Bladea.  
  
"Bladea?! That was you the whole time?!" T-Bone couldn't believe it.  
  
"You were expecting Gnome Boy?" Bladea grinned mischeviously.  
  
Razor grinned back. "Welcome to the team, partner." 


End file.
